Hornby's Best Ever Models

[robmcg]

Given the arrival of Princess L,MS 6201 and now 46206, so far as I know, it's time to worry about Hornby BR green again...

 

here is 46203 (old model but heavily edited) in a rather faded hue...

 

 

We can blame the weather.

[robmcg]

On 10/03/2020 at 02:54, Londoner said:

The ex LNER engines have all been fabulous, but I still think the BR6 is the best Hornby engine ever. Perfect in every respect.

 

May I ask please what a BR6 is?

[Hal Nail]

1 hour ago, robmcg said:

 

May I ask please what a BR6 is?

Clan?

[robmcg]

Will Hornby do (shock, horror) BR Brunswick Green Princess or will I continue to photo-edit the old ones?

 

 

 

 

Not sure if I'll ever get BR green...

Edited March 11, 2020 by robmcg
correction to pic

[robmcg]

1 hour ago, Hal Nail said:

Clan?

 

That would fit with it being Hornby's Best Ever, certainly.... 

 

Cheers

[No Decorum]

11 hours ago, robmcg said:

Will Hornby do (shock, horror) BR Brunswick Green Princess or will I continue to photo-edit the old ones?

 

Not sure if I'll ever get BR green...

R3855 (46211 Queen Maud) in BR green is due in five months. 

[robmcg]

4 hours ago, No Decorum said:

R3855 (46211 Queen Maud) in BR green is due in five months. 

 

Ah, I don't know how I missed that.

 

Amusing how they are very careful about BR green, and very good of them!  Hornby image below.

 

[robmcg]

No green livery issues here...  unless you talk of the earlier GWR 72XX versions....

 

An underrated model in my view.  And quite cheap if you shop around. 

 

[Londoner]

Robmcg,

 

Even with that ugly chimney that sits on the smokebox with a huge gap under it? Reminds me of the issue with the BR7. A fabulous model for a while, then produced with a chimney with a lip of about a scale 3 inches deep. Then, back to a nice rendition of the chimney lip. The 6 always had a beautiful chimney, along with everything else.

[Metr0Land]

7236 returns to Oxford shed with a single brake van.  She would eventually be withdraw from Bristol Barrow Road Shed, still retaining the earlier BR crest.

 

 

Edited March 16, 2020 by Metr0Land
spelling

[Londoner]

On 11/03/2020 at 03:55, Hal Nail said:

Clan?

Yes, BR class 72.

[robmcg]

Still on a Churchward GWR bent...  a lovely weathered Star 4061 'Glastonbury Abbey' bought from Ebay and looking good with a spot of editing.

 

Edited March 26, 2020 by robmcg
forgot to insert picture...

[robmcg]

Although the Star and Hall are unlikely contenders for best ever, there has at times been debate about Hornby BR green.

 

Here is a very unscientific comparison between a weathered Bachmann Improved Hall and a Hornby Railroad standard Hall, both at Eastleigh, must have been early 60s.

 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2020 by robmcg

[robmcg]

Or a hybrid, a late 1920s Star 4013 with Bachmann tender...

 

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by robmcg

[robmcg]

Another hybrid of the virtual kind, a Hornby star 4003 and Hall 6947 together with editing...

 

The Saint a lot of us wish for. This one is 2975 'Viscount Churchill' in 1913 form, or thereabouts.

 

Edited April 20, 2020 by robmcg
addition

[No Decorum]

8 hours ago, robmcg said:

Another hybrid of the virtual kind, a Hornby star 4003 and Hall 6947 together with editing...

 

The Saint a lot of us wish for. This one is 2975 'Viscount Churchill' in 1913 form, or thereabouts.

 

Clever stuff, Rob. A decent Saint (in a decent paint finish) would indeed fill a gap in Great Western history.

[robmcg]

The much-criticised 'design lever' at work, Ebbw Vale,  also known as 'Singing in the Valleys'.

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by robmcg
typo

[No Decorum]

I’ll rise to the bait. The prospect of these machines excited me. After long delays, they appeared, all design clevered. They have been bugging me since 2013 to the extent that I have been watching the prices of the ones with the decent chassis and, just recently, I have swapped the chassis of two of them. It was easily done and they are now smoother, quieter and are very likely to last longer.

 

I have Railway Liveries: Great Western Railway by Brian Haresnape and behold! on the cover is 4283 herself. In spite of the criticisms of the external appearance, two things struck me more than anything else and they were the waviness of flat steel sheet and the fixing of the side rods. Neither of these can I criticise Hornby for; they are well within modelling compromise.

 

In the course of dismantling the third, I was able to take a close look at the crosshead and piston rod on its own. I have to admire the quality of the miniature engineering. Since then, Hornby has upped the game. Whatever else is said about the Hall, its slidebars have depth and are not merely metal stampings.

 

4901 Adderley Hall has, to my eyes, a perfectly acceptable green. If only Hornby would ensure that all its Great Western and BR greens were acceptable and if only, if only, Hornby would produce decent chassis for the square-axleboxed, dodgy-motored locos of the past. I’m not asking for spares, although that would be nice, just a new run of the old mouldings up to a decent standard.

 

Mr. Kohler, when you supply us with that Saint we’ve been longing for, do it well, please, ever so nicely.

[robmcg]

1 hour ago, No Decorum said:

 

 

Mr. Kohler, when you supply us with that Saint we’ve been longing for, do it well, please, ever so nicely.

 

 

As Arthur Daly once said, 'when have I ever let you down'?   

 

Actually with lockdown it may be that sales are up and Hornby are out of the financial woods. But much of this recovery is undoubtedly from the toy end of the market.

 

[robmcg]

Here's one from the collector end of the market.

 

 

21C164 which was later named 'Fighter Command' completed on 14/7/1947, the last with the original cab, got the wedge shape cab as here a week later, not sure how long it kept the lined works grey livery. Withdrawn by BR on 31/5/1966.

 

Simply lovely.

 

Very pleased to have found this model, even though it had been for sale for over a year o a NZ trading site. 

Edited May 24, 2020 by robmcg
correction

[toboldlygo]

Been too busy to post, but here's one I finished over the weekend..

 

 

[robmcg]

Another common Hornby stalwart, the A3...

 

 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2020 by robmcg
correction

[PJT]

9 minutes ago, robmcg said:

Another common Hornby stalwart, the A3...

 

Good choice of A3, Rob. 

 

60067 'Ladas' is a particularly useful BR livery Hornby A3 because I think I'm right in saying it's the only one the company have made so far with a Thompson boiler (round dome).  I fitted a double chimney to it and swapped the tender for a GNR one and it became one of the famously hard to cop Carlisle Canal quartet of A3s, 60079 Bayardo.  Actually Hornby did a pretty good job on replicating the differences on the A3 boilers - in BR livery A3s alone, Hornby have done either three or four boilers with different shaped and positioned domes, plus various other plug positions etc. - and that's aside from the more obvious single or double chimney spec. 

 

Excuse my haziness on the exact details (I've got half the story in my head and the other half is in my library!) but I've always been very impressed at the number of A3 boiler variations Hornby have wrung out of the tooling.

 

Pete T.

 

[Ruffnut Thorston]

On 25/05/2020 at 19:40, toboldlygo said:

Been too busy to post, but here's one I finished over the weekend..

 

 

 

I notice that loco has the GWR route restriction and power class blue spot.

 

Is this one of the ones built at Swindon during WW2?

[robmcg]

3 minutes ago, PJT said:

 

Good choice of A3, Rob. 

 

60067 'Ladas' is a particularly useful BR livery Hornby A3 because I think I'm right in saying it's the only one the company have made so far with a Thompson boiler (round dome).  I fitted a double chimney to it and swapped the tender for a GNR one and it became one of the famously hard to cop Carlisle Canal quartet of A3s, 60079 Bayardo.  Actually Hornby did a pretty good job on replicating the differences on the A3 boilers - in BR livery A3s alone, Hornby have done either three or four boilers with different shaped and positioned domes, plus various other plug positions etc. - and that's aside from the more obvious single or double chimney spec. 

 

Excuse my haziness on the exact details (I've got half the story in my head and the other half is in my library!) but I've always been very impressed at the number of A3 boiler variations Hornby have wrung out of the tooling.

 

Pete T.

 

 

Hi Pete,

 

Indeed yes Hornby have done a great range a variations, my favourite being 60093 'Coronach', being at the premature end of its life c1962 equipped with A4 boiler, double chimney, and no deflectors, a very handsome combination.  Carlisle Canal engines had a certain special charm!